The Lines That Divide us
by lonelywaldorf
Summary: Elysium is safe. Elysium is secure. Elysium has secrets, and secrets can kill. Rick, Georgie and the others have been reunited, but will their group be torn apart by the residents of Elysium?
1. Whispers

**This is a start on a new story (finally). There is a plot, but I can't think of a title for it. Any suggestions gladly received. As are all reviews. I haven't seen Series 3 yet, so this interpretation of Michonne is purely based on what I imagine and what I got out of the comics. **

**Michonne **

"What exactly are you waiting for?" Michonne didn't bother to respond. She sensed the person behind her getting impatient. After a moment, they sat down next to her, keeping a respectable distance away. Ignoring them, she kept on looking at the town hall. Every day for the past week, Georgie had been summoned to talk with Iris for hours on end. When asked, she refused to disclose what was said, even to Daryl who Michonne was given to understand was someone who Georgie confided most, if not everything to. Today it wasn't only Georgie, but also Adele who was sat in Iris' office.

"Michonne? What are you waiting for?" Michonne looked down at her feet and clasped her hands together.

"I'm not sure." She looked up and rested her chin on her hands. "I…I don't think anything is wrong. But something is…strange. Do you understand?"

"I suppose. When you say strange, what do you mean?"

"I mean…I don't know. I don't think anything bad is happening. But I don't understand what she wants from Georgie. Or Adele. I thought she wanted to know what happened in town. But why does she want to keep talking to her? What does she want? She can't want to harm her, Georgie is too valuable. If they were going to harm her, or punish her, why wait over a week?"

There was a pause.

"Maybe you should leave."

"I can't do that. I can't leave Sayid and Georgie."

"You're very attached to them."

"They're good people. We work well together."

"You were going to kill Georgie."

"When I thought she was going to turn. That's different."

"Do you think she sees it like that."

"I know she does."

"Do you think Iris will see it like that. I bet that's what they're talking about."

"Iris is no fool."

"Georgie will leave you know. She will leave, and she will go back with her people. Sayid will go with her and you will be left here alone. You're not like him, you can't intergrate with people as easily as him. She'll leave, he'll leave and you'll have no-one…"

"Be QUIET" Michonne hissed the words, half turning to confront her attacker. "They won't leave me. They are not like that. If they go back I will go with them. I will not be left alone again."

Daryl stared at Michonne, squinting in distain. Beside him, T-Dog move Matthew away from Michonne, looking at Michonne in suspicion.

"Who th fuck ya talkin to?" The three of them walked away, making their way to the school, where the rest of the group was. She could hear Daryl muttering something about her being a 'crazy bitch'. She put her head in her hands.

"Why don't you just leave me alone," she muttered.


	2. Secrets

**Adele**

Adele breathed in sharply as she exited the town hall.

"So. She's…"

"Fucking terrifying?" Georgie smiled humourlessly.

"Oh yeah." Adele didn't even hesitate. "I'd rather go face the Governor and his death duels in the ring. At least you knew where to shoot. But her…" she snuck a look over her shoulder as the doors swung shut behind her. "Do you need to throw water over her, or stab a stake through her heart?" Georgie laughed and stepped into the street, stretching her arms above her head.

"I know. You get the feeling if she came face to face with a walker, she'd give it a good talking to and it would walk away in shame."

Adele gave a short burst of laughter, then stifled it, glancing back at the windows of the hall in case Iris was watching. "Seriously though." She turned to Georgie grinning. "I can't believe you're coming back to the town. Sophie and Andrea are going to freak out. Although…" She looked around. The walls, high, solid, secure. The back gardens full of food-real food not in cans or tins. Fresh meat, eggs, even milk. Electricity supplied by solar panels. Hot water. She sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, where we've come from, there is nothing like this."

"Well, that's what Iris wanted to talk about wasn't it. Getting everyone back here and working."

"Working for her." Adele chewed her lip. "She was quite insistent on that, hey?"

"Mmmm," Georgie nodded slowly. "Well…I guess that's something we can talk about later."

"Along with the fact that Iris now knows more about the pair of us then anyone that we have met during the last however long the dead have been wondering the earth?" Georgie scowled.

"Oh! Like, you would have been able to lie to her? Look, you saw her, she has a way of getting the truth out of you. The first time she called me in there, I was just so bloody glad she wasn't beheading me for the way things went with Jacci I would have told her my bank account number if she'd asked. And then when she started to talk about the deal for the rest of the group, I had to tell her all that stuff about you to make sure you could be in on it." She turned to Adele and grasped her arm, staring at her imploringly. "I trust you, and I need someone to talk to about this that I can trust, that doesn't make me feel like pissing myself every time I speak to her!"

Adele sighed and placed her hand over Georgies. "I'm not getting at you. I just…I don't like her knowing all that stuff. Not about Rowan and Matty. I feel like I'm always going to be wondering what she's going to do with it. It's going to just play on my mind a bit." She spotted Michonne and T-Dog approaching them, and smiled brightly. "Mind you," she whispered through gritted teeth. "I imagine if we annoyed her, she wouldn't bother with threats and blackmail, she'd just shoot us. Probably at dawn. With a firing squad."

"So." Michonne spoke directly to Georgie, ignoring Adele with a mind blowing lack of subtly that Adele didn't know whether to find amusing or insulting. "What did she have to say today? Or are we not entitled to that knowledge?"

"C'mon Georgie. You've been in there every day. What's going on?" T-Dog was looking at Georgie with an expectant look on his face.

"Well today, the lovely Iris decided that Adele is fit and well to travel and that we should make our way back to the town you guys came from and announce that I live. And then after that…don't know really. See what happens." Adele had to hand it to Georgie, she was an outstanding liar sometimes. Michonne looked sceptical.

"All that time to come to that decision?"

"It was a very thorough examination," Adele chimed in helpfully. Michonne ignored the contribution and walked off, obviously dissatisfied.

"Back to the old town?" T-Dog spoke slowly, and Adele could see that he was thinking carefully. She wondered if he felt the same way she did, that where they were now was a much safer bet then where they had left. She wanted to share her opinion, but remembered Iris' explicit instructions that they were not to encourage the others to return, that the decision would have more strength and conviction when they came to it themselves. As far as Adele could see, Iris's plan was to manipulate the group into willingly working for Iris in return for what felt like a slice of heaven. When the two girls had enquired as to the nature of the work, Iris had simply said

"If you insist on knowing the particulars, then you will be sorely disappointed. All you need to know is that it will be work that your group are more than capable of, given what Georgie has told me, but work that I don't believe anyone else in this town to be capable of. Why? Because they're all bloody idiots, that's why!"

And that had been that.

As Adele walked back to the hospital, to see if she could get Jack to give her a couple of days supply of bandages, she realised that even though Iris was daunting, rude, secretive, and most importantly, terrified the crap out of Adele the same way that her seventh grade Geography teacher had, she wasn't worried about her motives. She didn't feel like Iris was out to screw them over. Which meant one of two things.

Either they had finally found somewhere they could be safe and live out their days in peace, or Iris was the best liar-and therefore the most dangerous person-they had met yet.


	3. Journey

**Zxander**

"Woman, you're hurting me." Zxander winced as Levens fingers simply dug deeper into his stomach.

"_Merde. Merde, merde merde. Enfoncer les chevaux_," he heard her mutter under her breath. He knew what 'Merde' meant, and had a pretty good idea of what the rest meant too. He had no idea why Leven hadn't just stayed at home once she had found out they would be travelling by horseback. To say she was uncomfortable around them was like saying Zxander was uncomfortable surrounded by a pack of raging undead. He couldn't say that he was exactly comfortable himself, but at least he hadn't had to be coaxed onto the thing. Iris had insisted that they travel by horse to save petrol, and with the theory that the horses were actually more nimble. Zxander didn't disagree exactly, but he knew that he'd been riding a horse for a day and a half and his whole body felt like it had gone twenty rounds with every single person in Elysium.

It was a huge group-10 horses and 11 people in all. Dayo had protested briefly, but Iris had simply said that it was necessary to send all these people to the settlement. All four of the adults who had come to find Matthew were there-Adele, Craig, T-Dog and Daryl. Adele and Daryl rode ahead slightly, obviously use to riding horses. Adele in particular, seemed totally at home on her white and chestnut mare, and the horse seemed to react to her thoughts. Zxander couldn't help but feel a little jealous of them both. Georgie was also up front, not quite as confident, but clearly capable of riding. She had ridden with Zxander and Bella for a while, trying to coax Leven into at least opening her eyes. It turned out that, for her, horse riding was another skill that had been learnt after people started turning, whereas Daryl and Adele had been riding horses since they were small. Sayid and Michonne had volunteered to accompany the group, probably wanting to keep an eye on Georgie. After hearing some of the things Adele had said, Zxander didn't blame them-Georgie seemed be under constant attack from all types of people. Trouble didn't just seem to find her, it grabbed hold of her and danced the Tango. And finally Dayo was at the rear, making sure no-one straggled. It was his group Iris had told to go as ambassadors to the new settlement. The fact that, they were possibly the least intimidating group of the town (a fact that Sayid had laughed heartily at when he had been told this) and that they knew Georgie so well would make it more likely that they would be listened to.

"Reckon we'll be about another half days ride, assuming we don't run into walkers, or our friends from the town," T-Dog announced.

"Good." Zxander dug his heels into the side of the horse, rolling his eyes as Leven whimpered feeling the horse break into a short canter. "What you reckon Dayo, should we stop for a break or press on?"

Dayo glanced at Leven. Zxander couldn't see her, but he could feel her face pressed into his back, and could feel her fingers digging into his stomach. "Press on I think. I'd rather get there before dark." He leaned in and, lowering his voice, added to Zxander: "And we still don't know how they'll react to us, and how much convincing we'll have to do."

Zxander frowned and shook the reins of his horse, pressing it forward. So it wasn't just him that had been thinking about this. He wasn't sure himself what sort of people to expect. He liked Georgie well enough, and T-Dog and Craig were kind of hard NOT to like. Adele and Daryl however, were harder to read. Adele seemed like the sort of person who would eventually open up to you, but Zxander had a feeling that Daryl would happily break his nose if they were ever alone together. He wasn't sure why, but he had kept away from him since they had been introduced, in an attempt to keep the peace. But after the dirty looks he'd been getting, he was ready to face off with him.

"Hey!" Bella shook him out of his thoughts. "Is that smoke?" Zxander followed the direction of her outstretched finger. Sure enough, a thin, dirty grey line of smoke was drifting upwards ahead of them. Everyones head turned to look, and Zxander saw T-Dog and Craigs faces drain of colour.

"It's coming from the direction of the town!" Craig croaked in horror. Zxander turned to look at his friends. Bella and Sayid looked distressed: Dayo and Michonne were stony faced. He waited for Dayo's orders, but the thunder of hooves pulled his attention to the front.

The visitors had sped off in the direction of the smoke. Only Georgie remained, seemingly torn between her old friends and her new pack, looking backwards and forwards, uncertain whether to race ahead or wait for orders.

"Well, come on!" Dayo yelled out a command to his horse, and broke into a gallop, Bella and Sayid close on his tail. Georgie and Michonne followed suit, leaving Zxander behind.

"Hold on tight Levan," he yelled, before he kicked his heels into the side of his horse and bolted forward.


	4. Fear

**Adele**

The smell hit her like a sock to the jaw. Burning bodies. A pile of them, heaped outside the gates of the town, a macabre offering to the sky. She covered her mouth with her hand and tried not to retch.

"What in Gods name…" Craig circled the pile on his horse, examining it for familiar faces. T-Dog jumped off his horse and raced up to the gates.

"They're locked." He started to rattle them violently Something in the pile stirred. A breeze of air whistled past Adeles face and an arrowed lodged itself into the corpse of…she couldn't tell what it was. The body was charred and blackened, apart from the occasional patch of raw pink skin. Adele hoped the walker had been dead when it had started to burn.

"Any more?" Georgie stopped alongside Adele, the rest of the Elysium group close behind her. Adele didn't ask why she had been behind them instead of with them.

"I don't think so. I hope not." Adele joined T-Dog at the gate. "Hello?" She shouted into the town, but heard nothing but an eerie echo of her own voice. Her heart started to thump, and the palms of her hands started to sweat. "Rick? Andrea? Anybody?"

"Adele." She turned to Dayos voice. He was standing in front of one of the fence panels. It had been broken, snapped into three, four pieces. It looked as if a great deal of force had been applied against it until it broke. She looked back to the pile of dead burning bodies and felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.

"Oh god." She started to pull at the wood, and felt T-Dog right beside her, tugging frantically at the wood.

"I told Rick, I told Douglas, I told em all. This fence…oh Lord please…" She heard the crack in his voice and felt her own composure start to melt away. Two hands closed over hers, and she felt herself being pulled away.

"Take a breath." Sayids hands moved from hers to around her shoulders. She watched as Georgie, Bella and Zxander pulled at the wood, revealing a hole just large enough for a small person to crawl through. T-Dog was sat on the floor, Daryl and Craig crouched next to him. Leven and Michonne were stood by the horses, holding their reins. Michonne had drawn her sword.

When the hole was revealed, they stared at it for a moment. Bella drew her gun.

"I'll go."

"No way." Zxander put an arm on her shoulder and Georgie stepped in front of the hole.

"I'm the only one small enough. And, I won't…if people are…it won't…" Bella struggled for words discrete enough.

"People don't know who you are," Georgie pointed out. "They're already on high alert. Let me go in. I'm the second smallest." Zxander started to speak, but Sayid jumped in.

"You are the largest of all of us. We will not be able to make that hole large enough for you without making far too much noise. And Georgie is right, it needs to be someone familiar that goes."

"We can both go." Georgie crouched down by the hole. "Two sets of eyes." Adele drew in a deep slow breath. She felt her head start to clear. She looked back at Michonne and Leven, sizing them up. If her initial impressions of the people in Elysium were accurate, then Leven would have combat training. And Michonne…Michonne had a big sword.

"All the women should go in." She felt a ripple of disapproval go through Sayid, and saw the look on Craigs face. "We're all small enough to get through the hole. You guys are all too bulky to fit anyway." This wasn't strictly true. Dayo and Zxander were huge-well huge in comparison to the half starved men Adele was use to. T-Dog was naturally bulky and Sayid was pretty solid. Craig and Daryl however, were slimmer and streamlined. But looking at T-Dog, who seemed unable to focus on anything other than Miao and their unborn child, it was they needed to stay with him. "We're not exactly helpless. And you need me there." She looked at Georgie. "Everyone here still thinks you're dead. Don't want any misfires." Georgie smiled wryly.

"I'm more use to a rifle than a pistol." Leven opened the chamber of her gun, checked it, and then closed it again. "I will act as back up, take out the ones you miss. We cannot afford to waste the bullets, _acceptez-vous_?" Michonne glanced at the pile of corpses by the gate.

"You think that there are more in there?" Leven shrugged.

"We do not know what is happening. I am thinking on the worse side. I am hoping that I am being wrong." Adeles stomach clenched unpleasantly again. Leven was right, but she wished she had kept her mouth closed. Bella crouched down and peered through the hole.

"Nothing there so far." She scrabbled through remarkably fast, her legs and feet disappearing before Adele could blink. Georgie followed immediately afterwards, ignoring the grunt of protest from Daryl. As Leven and Michonne scrabbled through the hole, she took one last look at T-Dog.

"We'll find her," she promised him silently. "One way or another, we will deal with it for you."


	5. Complications

**Yeap. Gonna indulge myself with a bit of girl power. **

**Bella**

As Bella pulled herself through the hole, she looked up to see Michonne swinging her sword and the head of a walker fell not three inches from her face. As she got to her feet, she could see Georgie and Adele swiftly dealing with two more, plunging knives deep into their skulls. It was with some confusion that she noted that only one of the walkers was freshly dead. The other two were at quite advanced stages of rotting, one with the skin so rotted on its arm, she could see the underlying bone. Before she could think on it any further, her attention was caught by another three walkers making their way towards the new source of food.

"Mine." An arrow flew into the skull of the walker to the left. Georgie lowered her bow, and reached behind her to pull another arrow from her quiver.

"Share." In one fluid motion, Adele pulled a knife from her belt, and flicked it at the walkers. It found its mark in the skull of the middle walker, and it dropped to the floor. Michonne walked forward and took the head of the third. Bella stood, feeling like a useless spare part. More for the want of something to do, she knelt down and examined the head of the walker that had fallen past her head. As she turned it over, it clanked its teeth at her, still trying to bite her. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and slowly pushed her bowie knife into its eye. The flesh on its face was grey and old, and peeling away from its skull. She turned it side to side, and then shrugging, stood up.

"Hey, Bella." The other three were stood around the body of the freshest looking walker. Adele was knelt beside it, examining its chest. "Can you take a look at this?"

"Sure." Bella pulled her knife out of the walkers skull and walked over to the body. "What am I looking at?"

"This." Adele motioned towards a bloody hole in the chest of the body. Bella looked at the hole. It was small, and straight through the heart. Death would have been instant if the creature had been…Bella leaned closer to the wound. The skin was burnt around the bullet wound. Blisters had started to form. She felt the blood drain from her face as the implications hit her. She started to examine the arms and legs of the body, looking for any signs of a bite mark, but the body was clean. They had been shot, and then had re-animated after the death. But why would anyone shoot someone that wasn't bitten?

"This person was murdered." Michonne spoke bluntly.

"Almost certainly." Bella stood, wiping her hands on her trousers. "But we'll have to figure out the reasons why later." She drew her gun. "We have company."

"Oh yay," Georgie muttered. She pulled her arrow out of the skull and reloaded. She aimed into the crowd of walkers approaching them. Bella pulled out her pistol and started to fire. She was short on rounds, and so took her time, aiming carefully, making sure not to waste a single bullet.

"Guys. Around the back gardens, lets go." Adele had already boosted Michonne over the fence, and beckoned Georgie and Bella towards her. Bella was relieved to see that Georgie didn't rush back for her arrows this time, but hopped over the fence along with herself and Adele and Michonne.

"Ok, so we have around 5 minutes before they beat down the fence, so lets move fast. Keep going north and hopefully we can get to the church before they get us," Adele panted.

"And by they, do we mean walkers, or the people who may or may not have murdered that woman," Michonne asked glibly. Before Adele could answer, a bullet shattered a toy plastic bucket at her feet.

"GET DOWN!" Bella screamed. She yanked Georgie backwards behind a garden shed, as Michonne and Adele made a mad dash for the fence and scrambled over.

"Georgie! Bella!" Michonnes voice was tinged with worry-unusual for her. 'She must really care about us,' Bella thought wryly.

"Go! GO! Get to the others! We can distract some of these…people." Georgie peered around the side of the shed and shot into the house. A cry from inside, told Bella she had hit her mark. Bella checked her weaponry. She had a few magazines left, and her knives. She wished she could conserve her bullets, but between the strangers shooting in the house, and the walkers who were un-doubtedly approaching them, attracted by the sound of gun fire, she was going to have to use gun fire.

"Plan?" Georgie turned to Bella. "Do you have one? Because all I got so far is point, shoot, pray." Bella shrugged.

"That's a plan to me."


	6. Resurrection

**Rick**

"It's Adele!" Rick pulled his face away from the shattered stained glass windows. "It's Adele and another person, a stranger. They're coming for the church, Andrea, Glenn get those doors open and give them covering fire. There's walkers coming up behind them." Jumping away from the window, he picked up his rifle and aimed it out of the door.

"ADELE. DOWN!" Adele grabbed the woman next to her and pulled her down as Rick fire a shot, lodging a bullet into the skull of a walker whose hand was inches away from her shoulder. Whilst Adele clambered to her feet, the stranger leapt up with the grace of some deer like creature and, with one smooth motion, pulled a long sword off her back and swung it to her left. It sliced through the skull of a walker with no resistance. In the same fluid movement, the woman fell to one knee, and sliced another walker clean in half, from navel to the top of its' skull. Rick felt his mouth fall open. She seemed to have stepped out of one of the action-horror movies that he used to watch in the old world. Glancing to his left and right, he could see Glenn and Andrea had similar looks of shock and awe on their faces. As the two women raced into the church, he had to shake himself awake.

"DOORS, NOW!" The doors slammed shut with a reassuring bang. Rick bolted them and felt the comforting weight of the heavy oak under his hands.

"Adele." He turned to see Andrea pull Adele into a tight embrace. Glenn was looking at the stranger warily.

"Cool sword." The stranger said nothing, just stared back at him. Rick found himself feeling very unnerved by her. He turned away and placed his hand on Adele's shoulder.

"You came at the right time. I don't know if you have noticed, but we have a situation."

"You can say that again." Adele grabbed his hand and looked at him intensely. "But first, you need to hear this. Georgie is alive."

Rick felt his stomach drop and his legs go weak. Over Adeles shoulder, Andrea drew in a deep breath.

"Adele. I think you may have…"

"We found her." The stranger interrupted. "Myself and my friend. He had enough medical experience to tend to her wound. If you don't believe me, go out into the street and follow the sound of the guns. She's dealing with some unpleasant men in the house down the street." She turned away from Rick to Adele. "I don't think we have time to explain the deal. This place is inhabitable. We need to find your group and take them back."

"Wait just a minute…" Rick was still trying to wrap his head around Georgie being alive. "We can't just move people out-there are still too many walkers, and those men…"

"Will be dead in the next 15 minutes." The silence that followed the woman's words could have cut glass.

"Just who the hell are you?" Rick finally found his voice.

"She's Michonne. She's a friend. And she's right." Adele planted herself between Rick and Michonne. "Georgie is out there, with another woman. And they're the only people who are coming out of that house." She stared straight into Ricks eyes. "Don't be naïve Rick. You know what we were trained to do. Well this woman that Georgie is with was trained to do the same. But she didn't get beaten half to death when she got it wrong. If you want to move everyone, we have to do it now, whilst those men are distracted. We mobilise everyone, and get them to the front gates. Daryl, T-Dog and other armed men are at the front. They can give us covering fire. We get to Elysium-the other town-and we stay there. You should see it Rick. It's wonderful."

Ricks head was spinning. One thought came to the forefront.

"Miao…the baby came last night…I don't know if she can travel."

"Leave it to me." Glenn spoke up. "If someone can navigate, I can hot wire a car and drive her and the baby to this Elysium. I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to, and if there is an alternative that Adele and…Georgie have found, I'm up for it."

Suddenly all faces were turned to him. Rick couldn't think. He knew this something he should take the time to think about, to consider carefully and discuss, but there wasn't time. He opened his mouth to answer, when a crash from the street outside make them all run to the window.

A petite, brunette woman was picking herself up on the street, having seemingly been thrown through a window. A man was advancing on her-the biggest, most aggressive looking of all the men who had invaded the town. He was bleeding heavily from the shoulder and stomach, and yet he was still moving. The woman backed away from him, knife in hand, eyeing him and the walkers who had turned their attentions to her. The man made wild, drunken swings, trying to connect with her head. Rick was reminded of fights at the prisons. The man had lost; his lack of control demonstrated that. It was just a matter of how many stabs the woman would have to make to take him down.

Without warning, another figure launched them self from the door of the house and jumped on the back of the man. There was a flash of silver, and the man fell to his knees, clutching at his throat. A deep scarlet fountain of blood poured from his throat. The smaller woman advanced on him, and plunged her knife into his skull, preventing reanimation. Simultaneously, the taller woman draw an arrow from her back and shot it straight into the eye of a walker. The move was clearly rehearsed, practised, done a hundred, a thousand times over. And suddenly, the familiarity of it hit Rick like a brick, bringing truth and weight to Adeles' words. He ran to the doors and unbolted them again, shaking as he did so, opening them wide to let Georgie in.


End file.
